Baby and toddler clothes are super expensive!

[MooseBreath]

DS is nearly a year old and is growing like a weed. Obviously I want to clothe my child. We don't have friends with children and family with children live overseas, so hand-me-downs is not an option.

Everywhere I look for clothes is so expensive! Surely children's clothing should be cheaper, given that it will only fit for a few months? I've tried supermarkets, but a a pair of trousers is like £10! The only affordable things I have found are the likes of PatPat, and I don't like the thought of using what I can only assume is fast fashion and child labour. It's horrible for the environment and human rights.

DS loves messy play and will typically wear 2 outfits per day (there is mud, paint, and food on everything...I don't mind stains, but draw the line if he's wet and sticky!), and we haven't got a tumble dryer, so need to line dry everything.

Where do you buy clothing for your kids?

Ebay, I clothe my two through a combination of ebay and Fb marketplace bundles, the odd charity shop find, and gifts. I rarely buy anything new, unless I'm looking for something very specific.

Definitely plain multipacks from HM or supermarkets if buying new is the cheapest, not individual outfits.

Secondhand bundles though, Ebay, FB marketplace etc is where the real bargains are

H&M and Ebay. Can get some good quality stuff for very cheap if you aren't too fussy on colour. I always get Next bodysuits from Ebay.

Oh I forgot, M&S do some really nice bits in their 3for2 range. Lovely quality.
I got 3 pairs nice leggings and mix and match 3 tshirts for £20. Not super cheap but excellent value.

Well cheap cloths will have been produced in a cheap (and possible unethical) way. If you want to have morals you have to be prepared to pay more for something that had cost more to produce.

Expensive brands use the same factories as the cheap ones.

As others have said, eBay bundles, freecycle, gumtree, any freebie sites on social media. It’s commendable you don’t want to contribute to fast fashion and I totally understand the reasoning behind it but I do think there needs to be a balance, if you’re fortunate enough to be able to afford ethically produced clothing then you should when possible buy those, but if you’re struggling with basics you need to buy what you can afford.

How much do you think should be charged for something that someone has designed and made out of materials?

Sainsburys sell kids t shirts for £3, which is incredibly cheap really when you think of what goes into making clothes

Second-hand. I have a friend that makes kids stuff and seeing the cost of fabric was a shock and made me realise those bespoke items are actually not making ber much money even though they seem so expensive. So supermarket clothes suddenly seemed really cheap. But donr forget that they have to be made abroad in places like China and India to keep costs that low :( and shipping isnt very green.

18 months to 4 (or 5) is difficult for second hand clothes. Very few items end up in a decent enough state to hand down between my children and I'm fussier if handing on/sending on to charity. Pretty well nothing would be fit to sell, the only things that might be ok would be the emergency wellies I bought after forgetting shoes for my DS on a day out and possibly some party dresses.

Anything light coloured has acquired stains, especially around the neck/sleeves and a lot of things get holes. My older DC averages a hole in the knees of tights/trousers a week and my younger one (2 year old) is tending to wear stuff out at the knees and in the bum from climbing up and down various things...

I think after about 5 or 6 nicer clothes do survive better as running around crazily is often more directed into specific "sports time" and therefore clothes...

I have bags of clothes for this age, That my son has geisha out of or not used

I could send you some if you pay postage?

FB marketplace and local FB selling sites

I have two local FARA charity shops that sell amazing second-hand baby/toddler/kids clothes for a song. They also have a FB page selling bundles of clothing.

www.facebook.com/FARACharityShops/

DS aged 2 is mainly dressed in primark, supermarket, Matalan, similar. He wears mainly joggers, tshirts, long sleeved tops and hoodies. I bought him 3 pairs of joggers in Asda for £7 yesterday. And a load of shorts for the summer for £15.

He has a handful of ‘nicer’ bottoms and tops / shirts for if we are going somewhere in particular but not many.

Most of the time he’s covered in mud / paint / food and he looks like he’s been in a war zone when he gets home from nursery so stuff I can throw away once they have ingrained stains is all he needs!

Ebay. Pay postage.

Just wait until you have to start buying school shoes

You can shop in gap, next, marks and spencer etc and the clothes in the sales are cheaper than full price primark. The key for me was to buy the next 2 years of clothes now and keep buying the next sizes in sales. For 5 years i never paid full price for anything except shoes and uniform.

That is a good tip actually, we bought DS a winter coat and some jumpers for next year in the next sale, 60% off

I don't like the thought of using what I can only assume is fast fashion and child labour. It's horrible for the environment and human rights

But you want to pay less than a tenner for a pair of trousers?

Ebay bundles - just search for 12-18 month bundle or whatever age you need. Postage adds a bit, but you can get decent quality, well looked after things for very little. I rarely buy anything new - just shoes, underwear etc and occasional things I really like - and they have better quality things than I could afford if I was buying everything new.
(I eBay/Depop a lot of my own clothes too - so it feels fine to do it for the kids!)

Try baby bundle, loads of second hand bundles for all ages and it gets posted out within a week of buying (via pay pal)

It's pretty obvious that the cost of clothes is mainly around the labour to make the clothes, packing, shopping, admin etc rather than the price of the cloth, which, whilst relevant, I imagine is a smaller element in the whole picture. Hence why kid's clothes cannot be that much cheaper even if they are 'used a few months'.
The obvious answers are bundles on eBay and marketplace. Also just post on your local community groups to see if people may be donating/getting rid of kids clothes near you. I've never found charity shops that handy for young kid's clothes.
There are also people who make a business out of second hand clothes, got a few v nice things from one such website once. It costs a bit more than 'local hands me down' or eBay of course but quality and cheaper than new.
Also yes supermarket clothes / Matalan are v decently priced.

Baby and toddler clothes are astonishingly cheap compared to the past. I was talking about this to my daughter when she showed me the haul of Tesco clothes she'd bought for my granddaughter, for the kind of outlay that might have bought two items when DD was small.
Dresses for £3? Multi packs of tee shirts for a fiver? Seriously, count your blessings that you didn't have toddlers 30 years ago!

Asda, primark and Matalan I found cheapest and quality is fine. H&M pretty good value on multipacks of stuff. Have a look if there are any Mum2mum sales around you - like an indoor car boot of just baby and young child stuff, always found amazing bargains at them. NQT and local children's centres often do similar sales - hopefully these will be up and running again soon.

We don't have friends with children and family with children live overseas, so hand-me-downs is not an option.

You are ignoring neighbours, colleagues (if one of you works in an office) and acquaintances.

I've received clothes of 2 neighbours.

A friend of mine gets clothes of one of her neighbours. Through her I've given that neighbour clothes for a relative of theirs. (I've met her neighbours a couple of times.)

I gave some clothes to a former colleague, while another former colleague gave myself and another colleague clothes.

We received clothes from another friend which were too big for our child so we gave them to one of our friends.

Some of our clothes have been given to a couple of DP's colleagues.

@RedMarauder

We don't have friends with children and family with children live overseas, so hand-me-downs is not an option.

You are ignoring neighbours, colleagues (if one of you works in an office) and acquaintances.

I've received clothes of 2 neighbours.

A friend of mine gets clothes of one of her neighbours. Through her I've given that neighbour clothes for a relative of theirs. (I've met her neighbours a couple of times.)

I gave some clothes to a former colleague, while another former colleague gave myself and another colleague clothes.

We received clothes from another friend which were too big for our child so we gave them to one of our friends.

Some of our clothes have been given to a couple of DP's colleagues.

Indeed, same here. Our families are abroad and when we had kids none of our friends had children. Relied on eBay and acquaintances/colleagues etc

eBay, Facebook market place, local charity shops. T-shirt's and trousers are less than £2 a pop in Primark of buy multipacks in supermarkets.